Some Analysis and Commentary of the Shaw Memorial

In this piece, one again Robert Shaw is the centerpiece of it. However, the black troops he led are included in the picture. This is because, without them, he would have been just another Colonel who died in battle. In fact, as Savage points out, he is beside them in this picture; he is one of them. He is not an officer in the back, out of danger. None of the black men have the grotesque look that earlier artists portrayed as the supposed face of an African American. However, through subtle sculpture, it is clear that they are black. But most important, again, they are men. They are soldiers.

The inscription “Omnia Reliquit Servare Rem Publicam” meaning "He gave up all to serve the republic" is different than what Robert Lowell used for his poem "For the Union Dead" , which was "Relinquunt Omnia Servare Rem Publicam.” meaning "They gave up all to servethe republic." This new motto includes the blacks that served with Shaw, which the original doesn't.

At the time this was completed, it was “touted in the major magazines as the greatest monument the nation had ever erected” (Savage, 193).